There are no information strategies. Information is an unstrategic mess and maybe we just have to live with the mess and let our information management practices be guided by luck.
We all live with an inner information tension? What to share? How much to share? When to share?
Information is power so therefore we are somewhat careful on what we share and what we don’t share.
Sometimes sharing some information gives us power, but other times keeping information secret is the better choice.
Sometimes information leaks out. Other times it is an intentional leak designed to help you. Or it could be an unintended leak that hurts you. And other times it is something in between.
Computers can only work with the information that they have be given. It may be information that you voluntarily give to it. Maybe it is just stored on your local device, or maybe it is stored in the cloud.
Make a Conscious Decision
Maybe your information is compared to other information to see how it ranks.
Your personal information strategy is a decision that you make on your own. You can decide how much you post on social media, how much you want to keep on your personal computer, and how much to keep as hard copy.
There is no one best decision for everyone. It is a series of tradeoffs between privacy and anti-privacy.
And the trouble with copycatting best practices is that you don’t have any real competitive advantage and you make yourself easier to be hacked.
So the truth is that you need to come up with your own information strategies and you need to train your unique way of doing things to your co-workers so that there is enough commonality.
Ideally the tools should be designed so that it doesn’t PhD to understand the systems or months of training.
Always trade off automation for clarity and simplicity.
Any data that you create should be viewable and maybe even editable from multiple applications.
Avoid the temptation of single vendor integration.
Avoid using APIs to connect different systems.
Of course, these all seem like tactics rather than an overarching information strategy, Keep it simple, keep it neutral, avoid getting tied too deeply to anyone ecosystem and keep improving.
